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The butter dish is in the Useful (as opposed to Ornamental) designs classification. I had a read of the Nat.Arch. helpfile to see what it says about them...

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Registers and representations under the 1843 Act 1843-1884... record series BT 45 and BT 46.These are the designs submitted to the Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Office under the terms of the Non-ornamental ('Useful') Designs Act 1843. Representations by classification ‘useful’, design range 1-6740. The registers are divided into three parts: a register of the items by design number, an index to proprietors’ names in BT 46/5-7 and an alphabetical index to subjects in BT 46/9.

thanks for your poking around Anne - perhaps mine was the prototype, and didn't get as far as a lozenge.

So would appear nothing to do with MW then Neil, and in view of other designs for similar objects, it probably did have a cover/lid, although I don't think I missed seeing it when I bought the base, but will go back just in case.